Darwin’s official New Year’s Eve fireworks display and concert have been cancelled due to severe winds and rain across the Top End.  

The Darwin Waterfront Corporation, which was set to host an event featuring performances by Bananas in Pyjamas and Birds of Tokyo — as well as two fireworks displays — cited safety concerns as their reason for cancelling.

“We are disappointed the event cannot proceed as planned, but the safety of patrons, performers and contractors remains our top priority,” it said in a statement released at about 9am this morning. 

“We will continue to work with Birds of Tokyo and local artists to explore options to reschedule the concert for a later date and details will be provided in due course.”

Darwin Waterfront events and marketing coordinator Yasmine Welsh said on Thursday that the fireworks were still able to operate in wet weather, but not in severe wind. 

“The only issue they will have is if it’s extremely windy and the wind is coming towards the crowd rather than away,” she said. 

It comes as the Bureau of Meteorology issued warnings for potentially damaging winds of up to 90 kilometres per hour on Friday, stretching across the Top End. 

Rainfall totals of up to 80mm were recorded in the greater Darwin area over the past 24 hours, with the rain and wind set to continue all weekend. 

“At the moment, we’re experiencing a fairly vigorous monsoon across the Top End,” BOM forecaster Sally Cutter said on Friday. 

“So, what we’re going to see is squally showers moving on to the west coast and along the north coast and even right across the Top End, and some of them may produce some damaging wind gusts.”

Darwin Waterfront restaurants remain open.